User:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar group 5/Imperialism

Introduction
The term "imperialism" first came to light in the late 19th century, derived from the word "empire", thus suggesting an extension of national power over foreign lands. This term was first used by the "little Englanders", proclaimed advocates of the territorial and economic expansion of the British Empire through colonization, and was later adapted to other languages to describe the frictions between the Europeans and the rest of the world, notably Africa and Asia which found themselves under the Occidental hegemony. The highest peak of imperialism lasted from the mid 1880s to the breakthrough of WWI in 1914, and is commonly referred as "The Age of Imperialism" Although sharing many commonalities with colonialism, these two concepts differ in that of imperialism refers to the extension of a country's influence to new territories which can be achieved through colonization, use of military force, or other means, whereas colonization is the action of acquiring political or economical control over a country through settlement in the latter, as was the case with the French in Algeria called "Pieds noirs" who occupied the country for 132 years (1830-1962) as part of the French colonial quest which extended to North and South Africa as well as South Eastern Asia.

Cultural Imperialism
The concept of cultural hegemony, similar to cultural imperialism, sources from the Italian philosopher of the late 19th century, Antonio Gramsci. Inspired by Marx's ideas on the implications of capitalism on social classes -the take over of a subaltern class by a dominant class by means of capital appropriation, he looked upon this role playing scenario through cultural lenses rather than economic, suggesting a cultural submission of a country or community to another which does so by « winning them over ». Gramsci distinguished economic hegemons who control the capital and cultural hegemons who control the culture. This concept is relevant as we speak because in our increasingly globalized world, we fear the decline of many cultures for the sake of the "American Culture" being adopted all around the globe.

The United States of America : The World's First Cultural Imperialists
The American Dream

With the advent of the Cold War, the United States based their worldwide ideological quest on cultural propaganda of their doctrine (liberalism) through the promotion of "The American Dream", a concept incarnated by the media, as part of their "soft power". The American dream is an idea based on an equal availability of education and career opportunities to every american citizen, hence establishing a direct relation between labour and economic success. This exciting opportunity alongside with the fundamental logo of the american doctrine "freedom of expression" rapidly proliferated worldwide through Hollywood, for instance, the film Titanic, by James Cameron, but also via the music industry incarnating liberal morals such as the Beatles, the United States became the first cultural hegemon and still prevail today.

A Tasty take over of the world by the Big Mac

Current reports have been talking of a "Mcdonaldisation" of the world, implying the ubiquitous presence of a "McDonalds culture" pervading local businesses and other food chains. American tastes have monopolized the fast food industry, hence imposing its operational system -based on efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control- to its rivals whom are forced to adapt to survive. In fact, these four grounds leave seldom place for other businesses strategies to develop due to their high efficiency. With this double take-over of other cultures, the first by replacing most meals with the "Big Mac" and the second by eradicating other's operational strategies for the sake of one, McDonalds has become a cultural hegemon, a minimal representation of "the big real deal", the United States, to the point were, according to Eric Schlosser, "the Golden Arches are more widely recognized than the Christian cross (Schlosser, 2001)"

Imperialism in Modern Society
"Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism. Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below her soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa's impoverishment" - Kwame Nkrumah

In 1977, Djibouti was handed its independence, with 98.8% of the population supporting an end to France's colonial rule over the area. This marked an end to colonialism in its purest form in Africa, but imperialism still holds a tight grasp over the continent. The division of land by the world's main powers (see below) in the late 19th century held little regard for the internal relationships between tribal and religious groups; this has caused long-lasting instability throughout Africa, with Senegal the only country not to have experienced a coup d'état. This instability and political unrest has only reinforced the dependency of many of these countries on their former colonists, as well as other developed nations. For example, 14 African nations use one of two variations of the CFA franc, a currency which has a fixed rate to the Euro. Hence, the European Central Bank essentially defines the fiscal policy of these countries, and, although use of this currency provides more financial stability, export prices are driven up by the disproportionate strength of this currency in comparison to the surrounding nations.

Over the last few decades, new imperial powers have appeared. China is the most prominent example of this ; it is Africa's largest trade partner, draining its natural resources in order to aid its own development, and has invested large amounts of money into the construction of infrastructure in many African nations, including Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania. In fact, as of 2014, China has been investing over $200 billion in the continent on a yearly basis.

Multinational Contestation
This unceasing take-over of American "culture power" is however facing, as we speak, numerous contestations from its emerging opponents. For instance, the creation of the ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America), a South American political organization aiming at achieving financial, economic and cultural independence from their northern neighbor. We can also witness arguments rising in this matter in cultural domains -such as theaters (the song "Alexander Hamilton" adapted from the musical "Alexander Hamilton") or more recent "This is America" by American artist Childish Gambino both denouncing the ideal of the "American Dream" as being an illusory trap luring workers from all countries without providing them with real reward.

Imperialism in education
In his book, Willinsky explores the late repercussions of imperialism as a result of worldwide colonial presence in most, if not all, educational systems. By shedding light on the relationship between the quest and education, dominance and cultivation, the author reveals how colonial mindsets still prevail in our educational systems, hence shaping a segregated society of "black" and "white" people or "east" and "west". For instance, Carl Linnaeus, an 18th Swedish botanist, divided humans into four major subgroups. In that sense, education becomes the nucleus of racism and ethnocentrism, a tool for cultural hegemony. To better make his claim, Willinsky draws on the quote used by Johann Gottfried von Herder in 1909; "The barbarian rules by force, the cultivated conqueror teaches”. The traces of imperialism still linger today mainly through our tendency to polarize groups of individuals.

Imperialism in Non-native English Language Teaching

Linguistic imperialism
Language is not merely what we communicate by, but also a container of experiences and values. In the organized and professionalized English language teaching (ELT) activity across the world, the power with the spread of this language goes beyond the imagination of teachers and learners. Once a government minister commented English as a "weapon" of English speaking people, which disseminates their ideology of power and elitism to young non-native speakers, and this is close to the general idea of "linguistic imperialism".

Language features an inextricable relation with cultural texts, so it is always under intense debate whether we can teach language without teaching its culture.

Why is the case
The position of English language

Due to the dominance of English-speaking countries, English language is well established as the "international language" in various domains. It is undeniable that English has important practical use as a modern "lingua franca" not only among countries but also within a multilingual country like India.

Language as an identity constructor

It is among lines of utterance that we build and are informed of our own identity, and this is one of the nature of language. This is somehow a micro angle consistent with Willinsky's idea on imperialism in discipline classification, which is to divide up and to educate the world.

Language as an ideology carrier

A foreign language can possibly become intervention: when an exotic discourse is brought into an unfamiliar context, it may damage the original linguistic and cultural integrity. Because values are ingrained in metaphors, idioms and other linguistic features appearing in educational materials and in classes of language schools, which can exert influence in an unconscious way to the learners.

Attitudes
Supporting cultural integrity

It is suggested that English language teaching should "neutralize" the language and expand its utilitarian communicative function, so that people can acquire the language while preserving their cultural integrity. However, scholars do not agree with this idea assert that the language teaching without imparting society and culture knowledge is to assimilate rather than empowering the learners, so it is infeasible to create a set of standard to teach neutralized English.

An open mind to teaching methodology

Language is active enough to change for suiting in various contexts, while language learners also have the ability to hold an independent mind instead of being trapped by the thought limitation of a language. People should be inclusive enough, and ELT professionals absolutely have the space to adjust their teaching according to the contexts their classes are in.

Imperialism and maps
Most of the maps templates we use today were created during the 16th and 17th centuries, a time where we started discovering lots of new territories and colonizing. It was also a time where European imperialism was really strong. One map template remains particularly popular today: the mercator projection, which was created by Geert de Kremer in the 16th century. The problem with this model is that many of the different country sizes are wrong, in favour of the western countries, and especially European countries, which are represented bigger than they should. On the other hand, other countries, especially African countries are represented way smaller than they truly are. These errors can impact the way we see the world and the importance we give to every country as this model is used everywhere, from most textbooks maps to google maps' templates.

These errors happened for two main reasons. First of all, Kremer initially made globes and not maps, he, therefore, made 3 dimensions representation of the earth and not flat representations. As a consequence, when he tried to transfer his 3 dimensions model to a 2 dimensions one, he had to stretch the dimensions so that he could fill the entire space of the paper. He had to distort the poles most since it was the regions that were the most 'rounded' on the globe. But that doesn't explain why Africa is way smaller than it should be since a big part of Africa is situated on and near the equator, where Kremer had to do the least distortions. Well, if Africa appears smaller than it actually is, it is because of the purpose of the map. This mapping model was to be used mainly by sailors and at the time it was made, most important commercial cities and harbours were situated in Europe. Therefore, they needed more space in Europe to be able to write everything more neatly. There were less important cities in Africa at the time. So he decided to make Africa smaller to give extra space to Europe. And this imperially based decision has influenced the way we represent the world ever since.

Legacy of Imperialism
Individual differences were dramatised in order to condition society into thinking of groups of people in absolutes such as 'primitive' and 'civilised' as well as justify imperialism. This allowed the rampant spread of imperialism which culminated in the Age of Imperialism which peaked during mid 18th to the early 20th century where global powers such as Portugal and Spain competed with one another to expand trade through a race of exploration for new resources. The Berlin conference has come to be known as the 'Scramble for Africa' in which colonial powers divided up Africa amongst themselves without any historical consideration for the regions they were arbitrarily dividing. All this was carried out under the guise of a humanitarian ideal in which Africans "saved from the darkness by the combination of Christianity, commerce and civilization.” the West was delivering under the philosophy of colonialism.

However, European powers were mainly concerned with capitalist interests through extending their economic outreach by controlling the resources found in the colonies rather than the development of the region. These borders were drawn up without any consent or discussion with the African involved and European leaders disregarded visiting the region before drawing up the borders. The borders cut through various ethnic groups as well as disrupted trade routes as locals were unable to engage in trade between the newly formed colonies. Studies show that societies the new frontiers divided were more susceptible to higher rates of poverty and civil strife.

The ramifications of such borders are still felt in Africa today. The infamous Rwandan genocide in 1994 caused by the discord between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups which prior to colonial rule were social groups that interacted with one another. It was the colonial rule to divide the population that cemented their downfall. The traces of Western imperialism can still be felt in the pervasive strife present within Africa today.